Candidates Try To Win Over Soccer Moms

I’m all for freedom of speech, but when did it become okay for a CNN panelist to call our commander in chief a “wimp” and the Republican presidential candidate a “douche?”

Call me old-fashioned, but I think our democracy deserves more respect, even if I don’t believe every word Obama and Romney are saying and fact checks are now considered standard procedure.

Anyway, I missed the first half of last night’s presidential debate because I was at my daughter’s soccer game. But that doesn’t mean I missed any heated political conversation on the sidelines. After all, soccer moms have the field advantage, pun intended. That’s right, after a long history of women’s suffrage, the suburban mom has supposedly become the deciding factor in this election.

So, while my eighth grader blocked the ball from the goalie net, I chatted with the St. Louis moms about what matters to them in this election: The economy, jobs, health care, affordable college, and clean energy. With Peabody Energy headquartered in our hometown for more than half a century and a major economic driver, green coal production is a hot topic.

By the time I got home and plopped down on the couch to watch the rest of the second presidential bout, which included the zinger of the night, Romeny’s “binders full of women,” I still saw plenty of action. Leave it to a woman moderator, Candy Crowley, for having the composure and confidence to break up the catfights when things got out of control, namely the attack on the American embassy in Libya.

So, I’m not sure if last night’s debate closed the gender gap, and I don’t necessarily believe the polls anyway. Those numbers change as frequently as Amazon’s hourly bestseller list. If women are still undecided, it’s because we like to think through things, weigh the pros and cons, do our homework when it comes to deciding who will shape our children’s future.

I predict this 2012 presidential race will be as close as the baseball playoffs.

Then again, I’m a Cardinals fan.